Voyager Flashback: The Raven

My memory of the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager is that the character of Seven of Nine would ultimately take over the series. But early in her tenure, at least, she truly was just one character in a large ensemble cast, and "The Raven" was really the first episode to center on her.

Seven of Nine is experiencing strange visions, and soon her dormant Borg technology begins to reactivate. She leaves the ship, certain she is about to reunite with the Collective. But her destination does not relate to her past in the way she thinks.

This is something of a landmark script for Star Trek: Voyager, in that it's the first one credited to Bryan Fuller. He's the creator who later made multiple ambitious television series (including Star Trek: Discovery, which he left early on). He'd written two installments of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. and had helped polish Kes' Voyager send-off, but this was his first on-screen credit for the Star Trek series he would work on until its conclusion.

It's an episode with a rocky genesis. Not for the first time, the show had bought a pitch from an outside writer (Harry Doc Kloor) that turned out not to really work when they started to develop it. Aliens abducted Seven of Nine and reactivated her Borg elements, turning her into a Terminator-like killing machine... to reportedly little interest. There was no there there, and the Voyager staff in particular felt the lack of any "heart" in the story. A late full staff rebuild, followed by a rapid one-week rewrite by Fuller, retooled the story into what "The Raven" became.

There are some interesting elements here, especially with an eye toward Bryan Fuller's future career. The unusual dreamscapes of the episode feel like a test run for things that would later become disturbing staples of Hannibal. The deadpan humor of Seven of Nine (talking about what aspects of a species make them good drones) feels a bit like the black comedy of Wonderfalls. A focus on character interactions -- be they "odd couple" like Seven and Neelix, or like-minded as with Seven and Tuvok -- feel like hallmarks from Pushing Daisies or Dead Like Me.

But to whatever degree Bryan Fuller might have "saved" this episode, some of it feels beyond saving. The "unstoppable Terminator" elements are still here, and are indeed unsatisfying; Seven throws off all opposition with shocking ease in her bid to leave Voyager. The idea that mere proximity to her family's shipwreck could activate Seven's Borg implants feels like a ridiculous stretch. There's a real security risk here that's just hand-waved at the end... and the timing of this happening now, so soon after Seven has joined the crew, certainly seems like it should set the precedent that she can never be trusted.

Secondary story elements just feel forced. An opening scene in Da Vinci's holodeck workshop seems there only to justify the expense of building such a large set (by cramming it into one more episode). The officious aliens-of-the-week are so tedious that it's immediately obvious that dealing with them is a waste of time. Everyone has an inexplicably juvenile attitude toward consenting romance between adults: the Doctor inexplicably griefs Tom and B'Elanna about their budding relationship, and B'Elanna in turn hassles Harry Kim about his "working relationship" with Seven.

That said, there are some nice performances here, elicited by director LeVar Burton. Jeri Ryan does well with Seven's more vulnerable moments. Ethan Phillips is actually funny in a scene where Neelix tries to feed Seven with "toddler in a high chair" techniques. (You finally get a sense of the real funny man that everyone on the show clearly likes, rather than the forced character as written that it's impossible for the audience not to hate.) Burton handles the dream imagery well too, including rare use of slow motion photography for Star Trek. (Plus, a key image of a Borg drone letting out a bird's shriek really is chilling and weird.)

Other observations:

• Seven gets a new look in this episode. Her original silver suit with its visible internal structure was reportedly very uncomfortable for Jeri Ryan, and quickly retired in favor of another style of catsuit. The brown color here is pretty drab, but eventually there would be variations on that.

• For a moment, it sure feels like the show is trying to make us think that eating Neelix's cooking is somehow the trigger that causes Seven to go on a Borg rage bender.

• Seven is able to reconfigure a shuttle's shields with Borg enhancements, leaving you to wonder why such enhancements can't just be made to them (and the shields of Voyager itself) all the time.
  

• In a fun reversal, when Tuvok tries to give Seven the trademark Vulcan nerve pinch, she turns the tables and applies one to him.

"The Raven" seems like a better episode than it might have been, but I'd still call it just barely on the right side of "good." I give it a B-.